The Fox's Song
by The Soapy Kid
Summary: Naruto graduates a year later. Has different Teammates, a different sensei, and diferrent duties then the usual genin. Naruto is placed in a resupply reinforcement squad, given the duty of reequipping teams with supplies, and reinforcing them if needed
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the other characters in that series.

Chapter 1

A soft night breeze sifted through the air, rustling the leaves. The moon was nearly full and the sky held few clouds to block out the light.

Naruto moved swiftly through the trees, jumping from one branch to the next. The scroll was tucked safely in his arms; now all he had to do was find a clearing where he could read it. It was hard to contain his excitement. He had done it! He had done it! Ha! It had been so _easy_ too! He would show them now! He would be a _great_ ninja! He was Uzimaki Naruto!

His foot snagged. Naruto barely had time to let out a startled yelp as he pitched forward. A branch appeared suddenly in front of his face. Naruto tried to twist out of the way but there wasn't enough time, and his hands, instead of shielding his face, remained wrapped around the precious scroll. It was too late anyhow. His vision exploded into stars as his forehead slammed into the branch. The gritty feel of the branch as it rubbed against his face, twigs and leaves whipping at his face as he fell, the earth rushing up to meet him: all happened in an instant that took ages. A part of his mind told him that he was screaming, but he couldn't hear it. A sickening popping noise as he took the majority of the impact on his shoulder, just before his head was slammed into the ground. Darkness.

Hearing returned first. The sound of crickets, wind rustling leaves, and twigs snapping to his right as some nameless animal moved about it's nocturnal affairs. Feeling came next. The soil between his fingers and the blades of grass caressing his face confirmed his suspicion that he wasn't in his room. Sight came slower than the pervious senses, swimming in and out of focus. Then, everything was clear. He could see. He could remember. He had failed the exam. Mitzuki-sensei had offered him another chance. Steal the scroll. Learn a jitsu. He would pass and be a genin. He would prove his worth and… The scroll!

Naruto glanced around. There it was, eight feet away. He shifted to get up. Pain lanced through his shoulder. Pain exploded in his head. His vision went out of focus again. Naruto gagged as bile rose in his throat. He lay there hissing in pain before he worked up the will to try to move again, slowly this time. The pain was distracting, but he inched onward. When he was close enough, he reached for the scroll.

A hand snatched it away. Naruto suppressed a groan as he looked up to meet Iruka-sensei's eyes. They were disappointed. Naruto felt his insides curl. He had failed. They had even given him another chance and he had still failed. He was worthless. He was useless. A dropout.

"Why have you done this?" anger with a tint of sorrow filled his sensei's voice.

"I just wanted to be a ninja. I wanted to prove that I wasn't useless. I wanted to show my worth." Naruto choked.

Iruka was confused. "So you _stole_ the forbidden scroll? Naruto, that's not the way to prove your worth. If you do things like this, people will respect you less."

Now Naruto was confused. "Mitzuki-sensei said that if I stole the scroll and learned a jitsu from it, I could be a genin."

"Mitzuki said what? Naruto… What are you talking about?" Then it clicked. "We have to leave! Back to the village, now!"

Naruto was still confused, but slowly, he rose to his feet. His right arm hung limply at his side. Pain threatened to make him lose consciousness again. Something was definitely wrong with his arm. He opened his mouth to tell Iruka-sensei.

"Give me the scroll, Iruka. Maybe then I'll let you and the brat live."

Iruka and Naruto swung about at the voice. Mitzuki slipped out of the shadows, an oversized shiurken poised in his hand.

"Mitzuki-sensei? What's going on?" Naruto glanced from Mitzuki, to the shiurken, to Iruka, to the scroll.

Iruka confirmed his fears. "He tricked you, Naruto. The exam of stealing the scroll was a farce. He wants the scroll for himself. He has betrayed us."

Mitzuki gave no further warning. With a cry, he flung the giant throwing star at Iruka. The chunin evaded the attack, but failed to notice the smaller shiurken behind the larger one until it was too late. Two of them missed altogether, and one glanced off his forehead protector, saving him from a fatal blow, but one dug into his shoulder, and the other two struck his chest and gut. Iruka fell to his hands and knees.

With a cry of rage, Naruto dug into his equipment pouch with his left hand and produced a couple of shiurken. He flung them at Mitzuki. They flew wild and sloppy, missing their target completely. Naruto had never trained himself to throw with his offhand. Mitzuki laughed at the pitiful attempt as he started towards Naruto.

A sudden thought occurred to him, and a grin broke out across his face. "Hey, Naruto. Have you ever wondered why everyone in this village hates you? Why you grew up alone?"

Naruto froze. So there was a reason. Naruto felt sweat break out on his palms. All his life, he had both wished for and feared the answer to this question. Was it something his parents had done? Had they been traitors? Or did they hate him because of some fault of his. Naruto couldn't move. His mind was screaming at him. Run. Stay. Hide. No. Fight. Scream. Listen. Run. Run run run run run. No. Stay. Stay and know.

"It's simple, really. I might as well tell you… I suppose it's your right to know before you die." Mitzuki pulled another giant shiurken off his back.

Iruka-sensei was screaming at Mitzuki now. Something about a law and how something was forbidden. Naruto tuned him out. The truth. He wanted it. Feared it. Needed it.

"You're the Kyubbi, Naruto. The nine-tailed-fox that attacked the village all those years ago? They sealed it in your body."

Naruto took a step back. No. No, it wasn't true. He would never… He had never… _This is truth_. It was impossible. It was true.

"You killed the villagers families. Their sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters. They will _never_ stop hating you. You're a monster, Naruto."

His hands were shaking now. The villagers thought he was some kind of monster. Was he? Naruto didn't know; he didn't _think_ he was. It all made sense though. The way people wouldn't meet his eyes. The way a crowd shifted when he walked through it, leaving him constantly five feet away from human contact. The way they drew back as if burned when he accidentally brushed them. The whispers that followed him wherever he went. It defined him. They would always hate him. He would always be alone.

"You even killed Iruka's parents."

Naruto's head snapped around to look at Iruka-sensei. Images flashed through his mind. Iruka-sensei buying him lunch. Iruka-sensei pulling a bully off of him and tearing the boy a new one. Iruka-sensei with his head between his hands, feigning aggravation at Naruto's latest prank; Naruto could see the line of his mouth struggling not to turn upward. Iruka-sensei's disappointed eyes when he messed up again and again. He'd killed this man's parents?

Naruto watched as Iruka-sensei heaved himself to his feet. "You're wrong about Naruto. He's not a monster. The Third wanted people to acknowledge him for what he is… a sacrifice. A hero. Naruto bears a burden he never asked for, so that our village will never again see a day like the day my parents died. Even with the way he is treated, he still is cheerful, and tries to make people laugh. Though it is sealed within his body, Naruto and the Kyubbi are not the same."

Naruto stared at Iruka-sensei. He didn't hate him. It even… It even sort of sounded like… Iruka-sensei _liked_ him! But Naruto killed his parents… No. No, the Kyubbi did. Iruka-sensei was right. They were not the same.

"Get behind me, Naruto." Iruka-sensei ordered.

Dutifully, Naruto shifted behind the man. Mitzuki charged, whirling his shuriken, ready to throw it.

ANBU were all around them. Moonlight glinted off their pale masks. They were silent, all thirty of them. Not a word or even a whisper of breath greeted their arrival. Mitzuki spun in a circle, looking for a way out of the clearing. There was none. The ANBU had closed in like a net.

Naruto watched as the first two shiurken struck Mitzuki's arm and grazed his torso, before Iruka-sensei wrapped Naruto in his arms, burying Naruto's face in his chest. Naruto, unused to human contact, fought the urge to bolt. It actually felt comforting, and the boy wondered why he'd had to live twelve years before feeling this safe. In the back round, Mitzuki's battle cries turned to screams of pain; then to pathetic sobbing and pleas for mercy. Then he was silent. Naruto stayed in Iruka-sensei's arms long after the ANBU had vanished. The whole village thought he was a monster. A demon. But tonight, he had one person who knew what he was and wasn't, and cared about him. An important person. For tonight, that was enough.

_Just_ for tonight. Tomorrow, he would prove to the world that he was Uzimaki Naruto, the greatest ninja that ever lived.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter Two

Naruto stared at the door. Terrified. On the other side of the entrance was a room full of strangers. People whom he'd never met, but had no doubt would hate him. As a young child he'd watched other children meet and make new friends, and it had seemed a simple enough process: walk up, smile, tell them your name, and ask if they wanted to play with you.

But what had seemed a simple task for other kids never worked for Naruto. They hated him. Every time. And he could never understand why. He was never rude in how he approached them. Quite the opposite. He plotted out exactly what he would say to them to make himself appear nice, fun, and cool; overall, everything a good companion should be. He would offer some of his lunch to a boy who'd forgotten his. He would offer to let them play with his toys… the few he had. He tried every conceivable way but all he ever got in return was rejection, or a mother swarming in to pull their child away from him. He eventually just accepted that he would be friendless. If they wouldn't be his friends, it wouldn't matter to him. In fact, it was they who weren't worthy of being his friends.

From that point on, the world became his enemy. No longer would he go before people and beg for their friendship. He would become great. Powerful. Worthy. Then, they would come to him and beg _him_ to be _their_ friend. Occasionally, in his fantasies, he turned them away, out of spite for the pain they'd caused him. Usually, though, he gave them his friendship, his love, his soul, because no matter how they'd wronged him, if he turned them away, he would be alone again. Naruto, if he had a choice, would never choose to be alone.

That Iruka-sensei was willing to care about him was something Naruto still couldn't comprehend. It didn't fit with his world view at all. People didn't care about him with out ulterior motives. Iruka gained nothing in treating Naruto with generosity. And after the revelation of the Kyubbi sealed in his body, Iruka was the only reassurance that the other people of the village weren't right about him being a monster.

Naruto had been surprised at being let back in the academy. As he understood it, he'd already failed the exam too many times. Iruka-sensei had had a loud argument with the head of the school last week in the school office. Naruto had been waiting just outside the door, trying to make sense of the muffled voices drifting under the door when the Hokage approached. With a small grunted greeting towards Naruto, the Third opened the door and walked in. The heated discussion abruptly stopped.

Naruto would be Hokage someday.

Only another minute passed before the Third and Iruka stepped back out, Iruka looking mildly embarrassed but pleased, and the Hokage looking, as usual, serene, composed, and, in Naruto's opinion, unlawfully smug.

"You will be attending the academy again this year, Naruto," was all the elderly man said before strolling off, humming to himself.

Naruto _would _be Hokage someday.

So Naruto found himself outside the door to his new class, steeling himself to face his new classmates. Naruto found his courage and pushed through the door. He was met by a hushed silence.

It stretched.

Naruto uncomfortably cast his eyes about the room, taking in faces. He recognized none. The silence was getting thicker. Naruto felt at every moment that it couldn't logically go on any longer, and every moment he was proven wrong.

It broke like a wave hitting a rock, hissing whispers accumulating into a near roar; so it seemed to Naruto.

"Didn't he fail?"

"Who's he?"

"Uzumaki Naruto."

"He looks too old to be here. Is he too old?"

"My parents have talked about him. He's trouble."

Naruto shut them out. More of the same. More mockers and doubters. All the same, everyone of them so sure they already knew all they needed to know about him. Naruto decided it was their lose.

Or so he tried to. When Naruto was honest with himself, it hurt. He'd hoped that his new classmates would be of a different sort then his last. He'd hoped to form close ties to some of his peers… some of them would, after all, be his future teammates. His hopes were dashed as he saw the cold, sneering faces that greeted him.

"Naruto have a seat." Naruto turned to see Iruka-sensei standing at the front of the class. The man gave Naruto an encouraging look. Naruto took a deep breath and gathered his courage.

He chose a seat next to a smiling, friendly looking kid. As he sat, Naruto noticed the boy was studying him. Naruto returned a tentative grin.

"Hello. What's your name? I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

The boy didn't answer, just shook his head, grinning all the while. Naruto realized it suddenly. The smile wasn't a friendly grin. There was… something cold in that gaze. A look of carefully veiled disgust, directed at Naruto, but also, a little bit, to the world.

"I'm Kumasaka Taro. Let's be friends." It wasn't a sarcastic tone. Rather, it was said in a tone so overly sincere, it could be nothing but false.

Naruto flinched. He knew Taro's false sincerity was a mirror mocking his own desperation for friendship. Naruto would have snapped back in anger, but the manner in which the boy spoke caught Naruto off guard. He found it hard to resist an urge grin back, and pretend that he didn't realize he was being mocked.

Naruto turned his head back to the front of the class, suddenly wishing the boy would leave him alone.

"I hear about you a lot. Everybody's always talking about you. They say lots of bad stuff, but I think you're cool. You pull pranks and jokes on everyone. You're really funny." The boy slung an arm over Naruto's shoulder. "Let's hang out sometime."

Naruto clenched his hands. The boy knew what he was doing. This wasn't the careless, thoughtless scorn he'd met so often. The boy could _see_ Naruto's pain, could read his loneliness like an open book. And he mocked it.

Thankfully, Iruka began class right then, saving Naruto from removing Taro's arm from Naruto's shoulder, then removing Taro's arm from Taro's shoulder.

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After school let out Naruto made his way onto a training field. Once there, he began going over what he'd learned in class that day. It wasn't too difficult, mostly concepts and mental conditioning rather than practical. Once Naruto finished up what they'd gone over in that days lesson, he began working on bunshin, the hated genjitsu. He had no luck.

Naruto was almost ready to give it up for the day when he heard a noise. To Naruto's ears, it sounded like a scream of anger mixed with grief, and tinted with a bit of self hate. Naruto had made that noise himself many times.

Naruto followed the source. What greeted his eyes was a sight he would remember for the rest of his life. It was Sasuke. His arms were covered in abrasions, and he was breathing had. Naruto had never seen Sasuke breath hard. He was standing in front of a training pole, working the thing over viciously with his elbows. Then his knees. Then he would skip backwards throw shuriken into it. Then he would leap forward, high this time, and deliver high kicks on it where a persons head would be.

He was crying. Naruto hadn't known he knew how.

It also took him awhile to register Naruto's presence, something very unSasuke like. Naruto saw the moment he did. His body went rigid and his forearm went up to wipe his face.

"Uzumaki." he said, instantly Sasuke again.

"Uchiha." Naruto returned the greeting with a nod, then added. "You look like shit."

Sasuke didn't answer, instead shouldering past.

"You want to talk about it?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke gave him a look. _There's nothing to talk about and if there was, I wouldn't talk to you._

Naruto shrugged. "Suit yourself." He began to walk off.

"My first mission went… poorly." Naruto froze. For real? Sasuke was actually going to…

The somber boy crouched on a rock, his face turned away from Naruto in obvious discomfort.

"Sakura's pretty messed up. It was probably my fault. I knew she wasn't as capable as Masato and me, but I was so ready to test myself. To see what I could do. I didn't stop to consider…" he shook his head, and continued on in a more professional tone, as if reporting to a superior. "Our client was severely injured, though not mortally. His grandson died. From my own team, Sakura is in critical care right now… they say she'll probably pull through. Masato received minor injuries, but nothing that required hospitalization. He was amazing out there… I can't even describe…" He seemed to realize he was getting emotional and reverted back to reporting. "Two missing nin died pointless deaths. The situation dissolved into a blood bath between civilians fighting for their country, and thugs fighting for their lives. Primary objective was successful." He said this last part bitterly. "Tzuna the bridge builder lives, and the Bridge of Sorrow has been fully completed."

Naruto studied him for a moment, then shook his head.

"Did you think it would be easy?"

Sasuke gave him a look of surprise, and a look of realization swept across his face. "I guess… I guess I did. How stupid of me."

"Over confidence. A hotheaded desire to prove yourself." Naruto mentally cringed as he realized how much this last applied to him. "It's no wonder you feel you screwed up. You did."

Sasuke studied a tree next to him. "So now what?"

"So learn from it." Naruto cringed again. He wasn't good at that either, learning from mistakes. "When it's job time, be in the job. Remove thoughts of proving how good you are and work with your team. Be paranoid, and think through every situation." _I should take my own advise._

Sasuke looked at him with an odd look. "Since when have you been a source of wisdom?"

Naruto laughed. "I'm telling you what I get told ten times a day. I never do any of it. Useless shit, the lot of it."

Sasuke had the beginnings of a grin forming on his mouth. It vanished quickly, but it was there.

"I should see how Sakura's doing." he rose to his, and Naruto followed suit.

Sasuke glanced at him, suddenly seeming uncomfortable again.

_He wants to say thank you, but has no idea how_, Naruto realized, amused.

Sasuke finally came to a mental decision and extended his hand. Naruto grinned and took it, shaking it firmly. It wasn't friendship, but it _was_ acceptance. That was enough.

_Iruka._

_Sasuke._

_It's still a pathetically short list, but it will grow._

Sasuke was turning to leave when a voice spoke.

"There you are, Naruto-san. I've been looking for you."

It was Taro. He was smiling brightly, and leaning on a tree.

Sasuke saved Naruto from answering. "Who are you?"

"I will overlook your discourtesy and introduce myself. I am Kumasaka Taro. I have heard much of you, Uchiha Sasuke. No doubt you have as much potential and promise as rumors say."

"You don't mean that." Sasuke said blandly.

"I do, though." Taro insisted. "Don't let your confidence falter. I'm sure your next mission will be a success."

Sasuke turned to Naruto. "Who is this?"

Naruto grinned. "He's my lackey. He's always following me around, and I mostly tolerate his presence. He's all right, I suppose."

Taro's eyes flashed, but his smile never faltered. "Yes. I highly regard Naruto-sempai. When faced with a problem, I ask myself, 'What would Naruto-sempai do?' I always wish I could be like him."

Sasuke looked from Naruto, to Taro, then back to Naruto. "This is confusing. I'm going to see Sakura now. Join me if you wish, Naruto."

"Sure." Naruto hopped at the chance.

"I'll come too." Taro started.

"I wish you wouldn't." Sasuke spoke bluntly.

"I will respect your wish, Sasuke-san." He turned to Naruto. "Konbanwa, Naruto-sempai." He vanished back into the trees.

Sasuke turned to Naruto, and looked like he wanted to ask something, but wasn't sure what. Finally, he settled for, "Let's go see Sakura."

Then he darted off through the trees. Naruto followed.

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AN: I'll use this opportunity to answer reviewers, because people seem to review fics that answer back their reviews more often. So…

**NekoRaven: **Thank you. Your support is appreciated.

**Nitwittie:** I'll try to give a better sum.

**Vegeta the 3rd: **Thank you for your review. It helped me fix some holes in the story as well as some errors. So I explained sort of how Naruto got back into the academy , but I'll give my reason here. I don't think the Hokage would leave Naruto lying around. It's to much a risk. He wont kill him, but he also has to assure his loyalty to Konoha to prevent Naruto being used against them. He also has Naruto's interests at heart, and his motives aren't bad, but… It's his job to make Konoha safe.

**HidingDusk**: Thank you. Hope you keep reading.


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